Christmas 2013 at Bukit Bintang pt 2 Pavilion

The Pavilion definitely has my vote for the best decorated mall this Christmas, 2013. OK it's probably the most upmarket shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur so they should put on a good display, but it's way ahead of other malls.

Snowflakes on the trees -

The entrance

  There were reindeer outside and polar bears inside

The Christmas poinsettia

 The atmosphere was really nice with Christmas songs playing and the merry go round added to the effect. Icicles hanging on the tree -

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

See also Fahrenheit, and Suria KLCC and Mid Valley & Gardens.

Christmas 2013 at Bukit Bintang pt 1

It's that time of year again. I was in Bukit Bintang (Kuala Lumpur) so went to look at the Christmas decorations in some of the malls.
This is the entrance to Fahenreit 88. A strange name for a mall, apparently taken from the average temperature in Malaysia!

 

giant cup cake

Across the road at the Grand Millenium Hotel -

2010 I had high tea in Grand Millenium and it was good. Now they are doing a chocolate tea which sounds good, though it's expensive - and as  much as I loveeeeee chocolate, it's not really a 'high tea'

The street decorations in Bukit Bintang were nothing much

See also The Pavilion , and Suria KLCC and Mid Valley / Gardens.

Macaques playing at Ao Nang beach, Krabi, Thailand

The monkeys at the end of Ao Nang beach are really comical. They are long tailed macaques and compared to those at Batu Caves in Malaysia, they are far less aggressive. The ones at Batu Caves will grab anything being carried by visitors in the hope that it will be edible. They have stolen valuables such as passports and wallets and handbags and became a real nusiance. They used intimiation techniques to scare the visitors to drop whatever they are carrying.
The monkeys at Ao Nang are very different. They don't seem to bother too much about the visitors. OK they check them out to see if anyone is obviously holding food, but they make no attempt to grab anything. And they seem to understand that cameras are not food, even when the humans point the cameras just inches from the monkey.

There is a notice by the shrine asking visitors not to feed the monkeys here. A man from the Last Cafe keeps a watch and when too many monkeys congregate in this area, he sends them back using a catapult. It's not done to harm the monkeys, just chase them away. But it only lasts a minute and then they come back.

The monkeys make good use of the tree branch to cross the small section of stream to get onto the beach.

 Sometimes there were so many leaping from the beach onto the branch that they were double parked on the branch!

Others don't mind getting wet and will happily drop into the water from the high branches and then swim across. They are good swimmers, doing a doggy paddle.
Many were happily playing in the water and some were really competent at swimming underwater. But there were some who preferred not to get wet.

© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission

Krabi street food

I've been to Krabi many times over the last 25 years and always enjoy the food. There are 2 night markets, one by the river and one in the town centre. The latter is also open daytime and sells fruits, cakes, snacks as well as cooked foods. There is also Krabi walking street, a large night market open at weekends.

So there is a good choice of food. Many of the stalls sell pork products

although some are halal, such as this pancake stall

My absolute favourite sticky cake

Everytime I visit Krabi there are new things on sale. This time these slippers were the 'in thing'.

Also the fried ice cream seems to be a new trend.

These bamboo cocktails were here on my last visit.

Cone roti

and child musicians to entertain.